• Over 60% of new cases are never smokers or former smokers, many of whom quit decades ago.
• One in five women and one in twelve men diagnosed with lung cancer have never smoked.
• Nearly twice as many women die of lung cancer than breast cancer

Lung Cancer

It kills more men each year than prostate cancer,
It kills more women each year than breast cancer,
It kills three times more people per year than AIDS.

Lung cancer is the leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States.

Lung cancer kills more Americans each year than breast, prostate and colorectal cancers combined.

Approximately 50% of those diagnosed with lung cancer either never smoked, or quit smoking at the time of diagnosis.

While overall cancer incidence rates are declining, lung cancer incidence rates among women continue to rise.

Each year approximately 22,000 people who never smoked are newly diagnosed with lung cancer.  Radon is the number one cause of lung cancer among non-smokers, according to EPA estimates. Overall, radon is the second leading cause of lung cancer. Radon is responsible for about 21,000 lung cancer deaths every year. About 2,900 of these deaths occur among people who have never smoked.  For more information about radon, visit www.epa.gov and support our sponsor www.accurateradon.com

Between 1960 and 1990, deaths from lung cancer among women increased by more than 400%.

In 2002, an estimated 170,000 people will be newly diagnosed with lung cancer, and an estimated 155,000 people will die of lung cancer.

Lung cancer kills 85% of newly diagnosed patients within five years. The 5-year survival rate is 48% for cases detected when the disease is localized to the lung, but only 15% of lung cancers are detected that early.

African American men are at least 40% more likely to develop lung cancer than Caucasian men

Every 30 seconds, someone, somewhere in the world dies of lung cancer.

In 2001, approximately $1,200 was spent on research per lung cancer death, compared with:
$ 11,425 per breast cancer death
$  8,190 per prostate cancer death
$  3,350 per colorectal cancer death